Pricing Manager

Linklaters Americas; New York (NY); On-site; USD 136,500 - 154,000; Full time

Job summary

Linklaters Americas is seeking a senior pricing expert to expand the firm’s pricing capability for complex legal matters, including GenAI-assisted delivery components. You will own development, analysis and review of commercial proposals for high‑value, multi‑jurisdictional matters and support fee proposal submissions through governance committees.

You will lead the development and embedding of advanced pricing capabilities, collaborate with lawyers, legal tech, finance and matter management

Qualifications

• Ability to influence partners and build trust with stakeholders.
• Excellent financial modelling and data manipulation skills.
• Strong negotiation and client-facing abilities.
• High level of financial numeracy and reporting capability.

Responsibilities

• Manage workload and contribute to team knowledge sharing.
• Triage GenAI-related pricing opportunities and craft compelling proposals.
• Produce bespoke financial modelling and support negotiations or tenders.
• Develop off-the-shelf pricing models to standardize responses.
• Project-manage financial aspects of complex matter proposals and ensure governance compliance.
• Influence pricing governance processes and improve efficiency.
• Draft matter terms and maintain standard precedents.
• Ensure quality controls and accuracy of financial modelling under pressure.
• Provide commercial insights and challenge as an advisory partner.
• Develop pricing reports and share insights across the firm.
• Monitor pricing trends and technologies affecting delivery.

Skills

Gravitas to influence partners

Excellent modelling

Negotiation skills

Financial numeracy

Stakeholder management

Project management

Pricing governance

Communication (verbal/written)

Tools

Excel

Tableau

Job description

Purpose

Expand the firm’s pricing capability for complex legal matters, including those with tech and AI‑assisted delivery components. Act as a recognized expert in complex matter pricing, providing insightful, expert guidance to partners and senior stakeholders. Contribute as a key member of the global pricing team, taking ownership of the development, analysis, and review of commercial proposals for high‑value, multi‑jurisdictional, or technologically advanced matters. Support fee proposal submissions through relevant governance committees and proactively disseminate pricing intelligence across the firm. Lead the development and embedding of advanced matter pricing capabilities across the firm, including those related to GenAI‑assisted delivery and AFAs/value‑pricing, by continuously developing tools, best‑practice guidance, governance, training and hands‑on support. Develop and maintain an in-depth understanding of the firm’s full range of legal products and services — including how they are currently delivered and how delivery models are expected to evolve through technology and GenAI — to inform and shape appropriate, innovative pricing strategies for each product type.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage personal workload effectively by working with colleagues to maintain a prioritized schedule of requirements. Contribute to the continuous development of the team through knowledge sharing, peer support, and providing feedback where appropriate.
• Work collaboratively as part of a multi‑disciplinary team of lawyers and legal tech, finance, matter optimisation, legal project management and other business management professionals to triage and respond to GenAI‑related matter pricing opportunities, creating commercial proposals that are compelling for both the firm and its clients.
• Produce bespoke financial modelling for complex matter pricing, maintaining accuracy under pressure. Provide financial modelling support and plans for subsequent negotiations or any competitive bidding processes (e.g. e‑auctions) to protect the interests of the firm.
• Identify, develop and maintain a range of off‑the‑shelf pricing models tailored to the common requirements of categories of complex matters to improve response times and standardisation.
• Project‑manage the delivery of the financial aspects of complex matter proposals, ensuring timely stakeholder engagement and adherence with the RFP/proposal timetable and of the overall negotiation requirements. Manage personal deadlines with precision and communicate proactively to ensure overall requirements are met.
• Oversee and facilitate the smooth passage of fee proposals through internal approval processes via relevant governance committees. Make suggestions and recommendations to continuously improve the efficiency and effectiveness of matter pricing governance processes.
• Input into the drafting of matter terms to ensure commercial aspects of the agreement are comprehensively and appropriately captured. Develop and review standard wording for common aspects of terms and maintain a library of precedents. Track changing commercial aspects of the proposal from initial quote, through subsequent negotiation to final agreement, to ensure all changes are reflected in the final terms. Ensure matter proposals comply with wider client terms and any divergences are appropriately approved and recorded.
• Maintain effective processes and controls to ensure quality and accuracy of the team’s outputs. Ensure appropriate quality control of the team’s routine and bespoke financial modelling. Maintain high levels of accuracy under pressurised situations whilst retaining a high‑level oversight of the requirements.
• Provide commercial insights and challenge in an advisory capacity leveraging experience of complex pricing scenarios with appropriate gravitas to influence Partners. Negotiate directly with clients when required including travelling to their offices both in local jurisdiction and / or overseas.
• Ensure agreed fee arrangements are appropriately captured and implemented in the firm’s systems or, if required, collaborate with lawyers, project managers, and billers to ensure bespoke processes are set up to facilitate effective implementation.
• Develop best‑practice reports (including visualisations in Tableau as appropriate) to highlight insights into, and trends in, matter pricing and share with the global pricing network and throughout the firm. Be acknowledged as a global expert in this field and drive forward improvements.
• Conduct continuous horizon scanning to monitor, identify, and analyse emerging trends in the legal market, particularly focusing on pricing structures, integration of new technologies, competitive pricing strategies, and market shifts.
• Promotes the team’s regular knowledge sharing in all areas, both sharing best practice within the team and providing recommendations and insights to internal stakeholders including pricing committees, practices, the wider finance function and other business teams, utilising appropriate channels. Contribute to thought leadership in areas of expertise.
• Identify training needs and ensure the delivery of training around the firm to help lawyers and business teams colleagues approach pricing decisions in a professional and confident manner.
• Be flexible, open and available to support a ‘one‑team’ approach. Identify and lead, or support on, projects or initiatives of the pricing team (or the wider finance function or firm). Assist on client‑level pricing activities in times of peak‑demand or reduced capacity.
• Develop and maintain an in-depth understanding of the firm’s wide range of legal products and services, including how they are currently delivered and how delivery models are expected to evolve (including through GenAI and other technologies). Apply this knowledge to design, recommend, and continuously refine pricing strategies tailored to each product type, considering both current and future delivery economics.

Qualifications & Experience

• Gravitas to influence partners
• Ability to build empathy and trust
• Highly proactive/self‑motivated by nature
• Strong client service mentality
• Team player
• Highly flexible
• Takes ownership and responsibility for areas within role
• Accuracy under pressure
• Exceptionally strong financial numeracy
• Confident verbal and written communication skills in a style appropriate for partner consumption
• Excellent modelling and data manipulation skills
• Management experience
• Negotiation skills
• Strong financial reporting capability
• Ability to network
• Excellent IT skills including Excel and other finance‑based systems
• Excellent project time management
• A high degree of commercial acumen
• An understanding of how businesses operate and make decisions
• Understanding of a wide range of available B2B fee structures
• In‑depth understanding of the firm’s legal products and services — how they are currently delivered and how delivery is planned to evolve — in order to recommend appropriate pricing strategies for each product type.

The base salary range offered for this role will be between $136,500 and $154,000 and represents the firm’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting. Actual compensation will be dependent upon a number of factors, including but not limited to, the candidate’s relevant experience, performance, qualifications, degrees and location, as well as the needs of the firm. The total compensation package for this position may include overtime pay, discretionary bonuses and other benefits.

Technical Skills

Competitive Intelligence (CI), Continuous Improvement, Financial Analysis, Financial Modelling, Insight Generation, Pricing Analysis, Pricing Governance, Pricing Strategies, Regulatory Compliance, Revenue Management, Stakeholder Management

This list of duties and responsibilities above is not exhaustive. It is intended to describe the general content of, and requirements for, the performance of this job. As such, the role may also include the undertaking of additional tasks as required.